Richard D. Todd, Ph.D., M.D. (1951Y2008)

The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has lost a dear friend and one of its six deputy editors,whose name will be retired from the masthead in the next issue. Richard D. Todd, Ph.D., M.D., the Blanche F. Ittleson Professorof Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine inSt. Louis, died of leukemia on August 22, 2008. He was 56. Richard is survived by his wife and long-time collaborator, Dr. KarenO’Malley, and their two children, Lucas and Anne. Although Richard had much to be proud of, I am certain he would have toldyou he was most proud of his family.

Richard was truly one of the most important minds in child and adolescent psychiatry research. For almost 25 years, he devotedhis life to studying the genetic and environmental factors that influence child psychiatric disorders. He and his coworkerspublished more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in the scientific literature, spanning studies in attention-deficit/hyperactivitydisorder, autism-spectrum conditions, and childhood affective disorders. He was supervising large-scale twin-family studies on anumber of these conditions at the time of his untimely passing.

Richard will be remembered by his peers for his sharp intellect, his incredible creativity, his ability to design experiments thatanswered some of our field’s most important questions, and his capacity to synthesize information from disparate disciplines intosophisticated working models of mind, brain, and behavior in children. In addition to being a basic laboratory scientist, he was alsoan outstanding clinician and teacher. He lived by the long view that contributing to science would ultimately do the most good forthe children under our care and, throughout the course of his illness, never broke step with that agenda. Until his last days(whether at home, at his desk, or in his hospital bed), he could be seen writing, planning, conferring, and teaching. To our field, hehas left a rich and lasting legacy of scientific discovery and new insight, as well as a legion of physicians and scientists whom hetrained or with whom he collaborated over the course of a distinguished career.

In the last months of his life, Richard was serving our field on a number of levels. He was cochair of research for the Society ofProfessors of Child Psychiatry and a member of the DSM-V Disruptive Disorder Workgroup; he was mentoring young scientists(with four grant submissions on his desk at the time of his death), and he was posthumously awarded the Elaine Schlosser LewisAward by the Academy for the best article on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder published in the Journal in 2008. Inaddition, he had been selected to deliver the Founders Lecture at the Academy’s meeting in Chicago, one of the most prestigiouslectureships in our discipline. Richard was a key player in helping shape and define how the next generation of child psychiatryresearch would be done. In this way, his passing is doubly painful because, to all of us who knew him and his work, it was clear thathis best contributions were yet to come.

As one of his former students, a research colleague of 20 years, and a close friend, I can tell you that Richard was always proud tobe a child and adolescent psychiatrist, committed to the inquiry of the scientific basis of child psychiatric illnesses, propelled bywhat he saw as the potential of using basic neuroscience and genetic science approaches in the study of the disorders we treat, andconvinced that the work of reducing the pain and suffering associated with child psychiatric illness was the best work a personcould do.

Richard served as a model for all of us. He performed elegant research, wrote beautifully, and was an outstanding teacher andmentor and a truly gifted clinician. In short, Dr. Richard D. Todd was a total package and a reminder to all of us that a lifecommitted to reducing the suffering of children is a life well lived.

James J. Hudziak, M.D.DOI: 10.1097/CHI.0b013e31819a1c33

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WWW.JAACAP.COM 451J . AM. ACAD. CHILD ADOLESC. PSYCHIATRY, 48:4, APRIL 2009